Autopsy 41pt loss to Hawthorn

[PapaJ]

-We were well and truly in it for 3/4 quarters
- We lost this game on our own accord, terrible kicking out of the back half
- Time for Sutty to go back to the WAFL, Sheridan comes straight back in for him
- Hughes well and truly beaten but i think we should stick with him for another week
- Blakely showing real signs when finally given time in the middle, extremely mundy like today (couple of steps out and he is in space)
- Langdon started to get involved in the last, Crozier was solid all round today he really benefits from us hitting him as a target
- AP is a gun
- Walters is brilliant in the midfield, chucked him forward in the last and he snagged 2 goals aswell, the outside version of fyfe.
- Clancee probably earnt himself another go, shows that time in the wafl can help a player to find form

I had a VERY distracted view of the first half especially, settled in for the so entertaining 3rd .

Anyway, I agree with most of that - particularly the Clancee bit. I thought he was OK, not terrible that's for sure. I can see him staying in.

I know Mundy is playing back to help with some skills and to build his fitness back up, but I think it showed today that he just needs to stick to playing midfield. He wasn't our worst back there, but he plays so better in the guts and the last quarter showed that for mine.

 

[BettercallSaul]

Very disappointing 3rd 1/4 but if I'm honest I feared that would be the standard for the whole game. AP impressive again, Groz got involved a lot more and Tabs continuing to improve. Very happy with Weller and Blakely's last 1/4. Must keep putting games into the kids.
Negatives: The obvious - Skills.

 

[Freeeoo]

Tabs looked good in patches. Blakley and Wellerlooked great imo

I wouldn't say Blakley looked great, he did some good things especially in Q4 but he really butchers the ball when he gets it. Happy to give him more time to improve that part of his game. Agree Weller is developing very nicely.

 

[Grape Bear]

I don't know why people are melting. 40 points is the usual margin Hawthorn beats us down there by, with our first choice team and during the period of time we were actually playing well. I was expecting a 100 point loss.

Instead, we were good for 3/4 playing kids who don't even have 50 games to their name, without our prime ball mover, our dominant ruck, our only proven power forward, our two usual generals in the back half - and are only flogged by 40. By Hawthorn. In Antarctica.

I was more pissed off that we lost to Carlton.

The kids stood up.

 

[PapaJ]

I wouldn't say Blakley looked great, he did some good things especially in Q4 but he really butchers the ball when he gets it. Happy to give him more time to improve that part of his game. Agree Weller is developing very nicely.

Yeah, agree. Blakley has a great feel for the game, but he's not supper skilled and the pace of AFL makes it even worse. More games will help that a lot of course, but he's got a bit to go from what I can see.

 

[_007_]

Anyone else worried that Blakely only seems to get involved when the heat has completely gone out of the game? Obviously has time on his side but thus far I am unimpressed.

 

[imperial_oz]

Ibbo, Suban, Sutcliffe ... where to start?

Start with Sutcliffe. Easily the worst of a not very good bunch

 

[free at last]

Our first two picks (Weller & blakely) from the 2014 ND are starting to look like fairly astute selections IMO.

This year is turning out to be a good development year for a lot of our youngsters.

 

[Caldera]

Sutcliffe is mentally shot. Horrible with ball in hand, ok when defending. He needs a spell, that was an awful performance following some decidedly average performances.

On the flip side, Weller continues to look the business. Intent, hardness and skills. APearce is great to watch. Blakely looked ok without being outstanding, Hughes needs time. Langdon largely anonymous for mine, but happy for him to stay in. Sucks about Hill. Our options for quality distribution from the back half took another hit with his injury.

 

[ChimpaWompa]

I don't know why people are melting. 40 points is the usual margin Hawthorn beats us down there by, with our first choice team and during the period of time we were actually playing well. I was expecting a 100 point loss.

Instead, we were good for 3/4 playing kids who don't even have 50 games to their name, without our prime ball mover, our dominant ruck, our only proven power forward, our two usual generals in the back half - and are only flogged by 40. By Hawthorn. In Antarctica.

I was more pissed off that we lost to Carlton.

The kids stood up.

As a whole there was a lot of positives, that third qtr was absolute melt-pr0n though.

 

[PapaJ]

Our first two picks (Weller & blakely) from the 2014 ND are starting to look like fairly astute selections IMO.

This year is turning out to be a good development year for a lot of our youngsters.

It is, but we need to start winning soon. Not heaps, that's simply not going to happen and we were never going to win today. But these kids need to start learning how to win some games or it can all get a bit mentally difficult. I've seen many teams (not just old Dockers) who simply lose the mental aptitude it takes to win games.

 

[wayToGo_]

Thought our forward line did pretty well - I was expecting them to be unable to score but they made the most of their limited opportunities most of the time. Mayne, Tabs, Griff, Crozier, Ballas, Walters and Langdon all did some great things - and not many mistakes from them today.

Thought our defence held up ok in the first half given the massive number of inside 50s. Way too many turnovers still though on the rebound (the #1 thing that is destroying our competitiveness atm imo). But when we did rebound effectively I thought it worked well - fast, direct, lots of space and dangerous. Don't know the stats but I got the feeling most of our scores were from rebounding from defence today.

We started to win the clearances in the final quarter but we really needed to be winning them earlier in the game (suspect it coincided with Mundy playing in the middle and Blakely stepping up as well). Still don't remember a lot of scores from clearances (and especially centre clearances) though, most probably due to a lack of tall forwards targets.

I thought we were going to get pumped by 10 goals plus so 41 points and all of that from one quarter didn't feel too bad. I liked the experiment omitting three senior players and injecting more speed. Think we learnt some things we otherwise wouldn't have.

 

[free at last]

It is, but we need to start winning soon. Not heaps, that's simply not going to happen and we were never going to win today. But these kids need to start learning how to win some games or it can all get a bit mentally difficult. I've seen many teams (not just old Dockers) who simply lose the mental aptitude it takes to win games.

I'm sure we'll notch up the odd victory now that we start playing sides out of the top eight.

 

[holy diver]

Let down by the third quarter however some promising moments when you consider we were away at Inceston. I don't want to accept rubbish and loss after loss but I guess as we now are in a rebuild we have to search for the positives. Young guys did alright. I think we'll actually break the drought against the Tigers next week which should be entertaining.

 

[Nodgey]

Liked Weller's game. Walters continues to shine as a mid. Neale is a gun. Enjoyed Blakely's 4th q in the centre.

Sutcliffe's decline is baffling. Think Mz and Ibbo have proven they're past their best. Suban's game was odd - seemed reasonable but appeared to have a negating role, but I couldn't tell who he was on.

Crozier had a great first half but did his usual thing of going missing after that. In fairness, though, the whole *ing team went missing in the third....

 

[kingswood71]

I'm sure we'll notch up the odd victory now that we start playing sides out of the top eight.

I can see a 2 game winning streak from Rd 11 to Rd12....After that it gets bleak ....
Hopefully a few wins might get things on track and we win a few of the (at the moment) 50/50 games....

 

[Square Peg]

I thought there was quite a bit to like today.
Of the guys that regularly get a pasting here, Taberner and Crozier did lots right, C Pearce was good. Griff has had a great couple of weeks. I didn't even think Suban was as bad as is being made out. And finally I didn't even notice Pannell, so whilst I'm in a generous mood, well done to him too

 

[FreoMonocle]

As with most of this season, the defenders are under insane pressure due to midfield issues. Q1 and q3 the ball kept going back into defense monotonously.

Mundy doesn't spud under pressure, which is why he has been so valuable as a ball getting midfielder. If he is spudding up kicks out of defense with no direct pressure, pity Sutcliffe and Spurr who have endured it all season (so far).

 

[hoss]

Yep, same midfield issues with them completely leaking like a sieve and then the back line put under huge pressure for such a young line-up. Dawson down back and Barlow in the midfield would of been handy.

 

[FreoRicci]

On second thought, think needed Dawson down back to just bring the ball down. So many times a few players went for the marking option and got punished for that. Dawson would've at least kept Sicily quiet. Wasn't a main concern but like Pavlich up forward, needed him at times. Hughes isn't the right size/build, yet to match up on the 3rd forwards.

 

[wayToGo_]

On second thought, think needed Dawson down back to just bring the ball down. So many times a few players went for the marking option and got punished for that. Dawson would've at least kept Sicily quiet. Wasn't a main concern but like Pavlich up forward, needed him at times. Hughes isn't the right size/build, yet to match up on the 3rd forwards.

Yeah Hughes still needs a few more games to get the feel for it. He had 7 one percenters so he did cover for Dawson quite well. Unlike last week though, he didn't take any contested marks (he had 3 last week), and I think there was a couple of times he went up for the mark when he should have spoiled. Although he also didn't get much support in a few contests so it's hard to criticise. Ibbo had another shocker imo and provided minimal support - something is going on with him and I have no idea what it is.

It'd be a wrong call to drop Hughes I think because I get the feeling he's a confidence player. If he has confidence he will take the game on which we saw in his debut game and at the start of the last game. But he made a mistake and lost confidence during the game last week and that carried through a bit this week as well I think. If they drop him back to WAFL he'll continue the same consistent form he had for Peel this season but won't build the AFL confidence he needs so I hope we persist and get as many AFL games as possible into him and grow his confidence.

 

[JoseMourinho]

Quack, quack, quack. Quack? Quack Quack Quack!

We lost it in the 3rd quarter and Hughes needs to put in the extra effort.

 

[TheMcManusNose]

Sutcliffe outright terrible. Worst game he has played for us ever. 7 or 8 kicks fluffed hilariously or straight to a Hawthorn player.

I don't think anyone else was really terrible (Hughes maybe but game 3 you can forgive it). Taberner tried more than he usually seems to, but still can't take a ******* mark. Where is coulda and his cricket balls?

I hope Clancee and Crozier stay in, at least they can hit targets by hand and foot, that one kick of Hayden's direct to an opposition player notwithstanding.

Blakely showed a bit, couple of shocking kicks though. Langdon has some toe.

 

[Unique Name]

Sutcliffe outright terrible. Worst game he has played for us ever. 7 or 8 kicks fluffed hilariously or straight to a Hawthorn player.

I don't think anyone else was really terrible (Hughes maybe but game 3 you can forgive it). Taberner tried more than he usually seems to, but still can't take a ******* mark. Where is coulda and his cricket balls?

I hope Clancee and Crozier stay in, at least they can hit targets by hand and foot, that one kick of Hayden's direct to an opposition player notwithstanding.

Blakely showed a bit, couple of shocking kicks though. Langdon has some toe.

Tabs was 1st for marks (7) and 1st for contested marks (3) in our team.

He was 2nd for marks and 2nd for contested marks out of both teams.

Sicily was 1st.
10 and 4

 

[Ragtooth]

No way around it but that was a shocking loss with some good things to it. Lets hold Freo accountable and not accept mediocrity, that third quarter was absolulely shocking. No excuses for it.

Now that's out the way.
Walters...spooge
Interestingly its our fringe players who were the poorest i'd say. Suttcliffe, Ibbo, Suban, Muz, Clarke.....I think the youngs of A Pearce, Weller, lagdon, Tabaner all played better.
Hughes did quite a few things wrong, buts its against hawks and these things happen. Hope he continues to improve but did cost us a few.
Langdon was missing i thought? could be worng
Clarke, well he's gone backwards this year for whatever reason. I here hoping for the Ape to kick some goals in WAFL to earn a call up

Those under pressure who did OK (good and bad things) i thought was C Pearce, Mayne, Tabs and Crozier.

Sutcliffe outright terrible is a fair assessment. Can't see him being the 'next best thing' and at over the last few years he's hardly been anything.